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[StuM]

Originally Posted by steveth3b

PS- I don't remember internet forums 30 years ago before dial-up being a thing. I'm curious to learn more about browsing options on a Commodore 64 or the old IBM DOS machines. 😘

Dial-up has been around for over 30 years.
The late 80's were the heyday of Bulletin Board Systems and Fidonet.

"Browsing" didn't become an option until the spread of the Internet, which really took off in the early 90's.

[a64pilot]

Not that it's important, but I think only the 787 ever had Li-Po batteries, no other commercial airliner ever has, I don't think.
Many bush planes have gone semi illegally to Life-Po, but of course that is different as they are not large passenger airplanes.

My first real computer was a McIntosh. I paid so much for the thing, I still have it, and I think the modem was 14.4K?
I lusted for a hard drive, but couldn't afford it, besides who really needs 20 Megabyte when you could just swap floppies?
Maybe 1987?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by StuM

Dial-up has been around for over 30 years.
The late 80's were the heyday of Bulletin Board Systems and Fidonet.

"Browsing" didn't become an option until the spread of the Internet, which really took off in the early 90's.

Right Although to add another unimportant detail , “browsing” is associated with the World Wide Web, which was made possible through the application of HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) onto the Internet. The Web is not the Internet, it is an application on the Internet. The Internet has been around since the late 1950s/early 1960s. Prior to the web the ‘killer app’ was Gopher, along with the Google of the day: Veronica & Judghead.

Ah, the good old days of Telnet/FTP, Archie, Veronica, Jughead, WAIS, Usenet and of course BBSs. Back before the commercialization of the Internet…

[steveth3b]

Point being this forum didn't exist.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Ah, the good old days of Telnet/FTP, Archie, Veronica, Jughead, WAIS, Usenet and of course BBSs.

What? No mention of SLMR?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by StuM

What? No mention of SLMR?

You got me Stu. Don’t know what SLMR is/was.

My first modem was a 1200 baud, although I got to use a friend's 300 phone-plug modem prior to me spending the big bucks on the super-fast 1200. I used that one with my Mac SE. But my first computer was a Texas Instruments that used a cassette recorder as the storage drive. I expanded the built in memory of 4 kilobytes to a whopping 16K. I recall when that fancy Commodore 64 came out, and I mockingly proclaimed: “64K! Who would ever need 64K of memory?!?”

Since then I’ve learned not to make too many predictions about the future of technology .

[rbk]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

Actually that statement is part of the problem we're talking about. Automobile deaths today are about 1/2 of what they were in the 60s-70s. Probably less if you factor population growth and rise in miles driven per person, etc. But a few strategically cried about accidents aided by the auto insurance induced hysteria since the 80s had helped to make this something to be afraid of. With a corresponding rise in the insurance premiums of course. Kind of like the "piracy scare" of the past 10-15 years. But it turns out that for every dollar paid by marine insurance industry for ransoms and/or related losses there are 5-6 dollars collected in add'l insurance premiums "due to pricay activities". Gives one a pause to ask what came first - the chicken or the egg.

Not that I am blase about either DUI or piracy but any activity if treated the way we threat those rare enough events will seem scary and foreboding. Heck, they even started banning Samsung 7s from the airplanes. But not the planes' own batteries which are probably made of same technology by the same makers, only 1,000s times heavier and much more dangerous.

2015 US automobile fatalities 35,092
2015 US boat fatalities (mostly powerboats) 626
Not sure how my statement, factual as it is, is contributing to the mass hysteria of this or future generations. Commenting and contributing to your post about the hysteria of your family (aka the ignorant masses) about making terrifying assumptions about a chosen lifestyle on the water. Yes car fatalities have decrease since the 70's and 80's due mostly to advances in safety, but does not change the fact that you are less likely to be killed on a boat, plane, horse and buggy vs a car, period. It's an idiots and numbers game. Talk about ignorant assumptions and statements. And it should be good to remind most that in this age of legislating safety into our lives is passed by our lawmakers and guess which demographic they are mostly comprised of...I'm of the generation that invented the X games, Xtreme sports, the 1080, double triple and quad flips on just about anything that can be ridden, which spawned multiple generations of adrenaline junkies and if it can be done it'll be a younger generation that backflips a sailboat and sticks the landing. I guarantee it's not the younger generation that have placed all these bubble wrapped laws in place, and to group and generalize like that is ludicrous. Psst! Your ignorance is showing.

[StuM]

> You got me Stu. Don’t know what SLMR is/was.

Silly Little Mail Reader. Used with Fidonet, the predecessor of today's list servers and mailing lists using POP3/SMTP mail systems.

Dial up to a Fidonet server, download a QWK mail package, log off, read and respond to emails then dial up and upload your outgoing messages.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by steveth3b

Point being this forum didn't exist.

Not until our buddy Al invented it anyway

[nextis12]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

You got me Stu. Don’t know what SLMR is/was.

My first modem was a 1200 baud, although I got to use a friend's 300 phone-plug modem prior to me spending the big bucks on the super-fast 1200. I used that one with my Mac SE. But my first computer was a Texas Instruments that used a cassette recorder as the storage drive. I expanded the built in memory of 4 kilobytes to a whopping 16K. I recall when that fancy Commodore 64 came out, and I mockingly proclaimed: “64K! Who would ever need 64K of memory?!?”

Since then I’ve learned not to make too many predictions about the future of technology .

I remember getting an Epson 286 with a 40MB hard drive and thinking 40MB! There is no way I will ever fill that drive up. Now a watch has 8 gigs. I'm getting old...

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I lusted for a hard drive, but couldn't afford it, besides who really needs 20 Megabyte when you could just swap floppies?
Maybe 1987?

We owned and operated a video specialty store back in the mid '80's.
For the video tape rental part of the business we ran a DEC Rainbow Cpm computer with dual 5/14 floppies with 126k RAM and a 10 meg hard drive running a custom video rental software program.
The hard drive alone was about 6 x 12 x 12 inches, weighed around 20 pounds and cost us 2.5K USD in 1983 dollars.

How times have changed !!

[Stu Jackson]

Next time some newbie asks how old the folks on this forum are, just send 'em right here.

The questioner won't even know what a floppy disk is.

Too busy texting and walking or driving into trees.

[awaywego]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I like LS’s ebb and flow view here. I’ve been around here for about six years now, and I don’t see any obvious change in the character of the questions or posts. If you really want to make this claim rourkeh, then it is possible to do some data analysis using the much-touted (and nearly useless) search tool here. Actual evidence of your claim would be interesting.

I’m always amused at this curmudgeony grumble coming from some old farts about using the search tool, and not asking the same old questions. You realize this is a discussion forum, not a database. People come here to discuss cruising-related topics. I’m not saying reading old threads is a bad thing, but if we insisted that only completely new topics be allowed to enter the pantheon of new threads, well, it would be a pretty quiet discussion area. There’s very little that is completely new under the sun … in any topic.

No one forces anyone to read or respond to a thread here. If it annoys you to read the same old posts, then move on. You can even put the thread on ignore if it really bugs you. Take a chill pill daddyoh.

As for this bashing of the 'damn kids who never get outside,' I just have two observations:

#1. Who are the parents? Mostly Babyboomers and Genxers … you know, most of the people who post here. So who’s to blame for these kids?

#2. It was ever the case that the older generations complained about “the damn kids today…”. I’m not saying things aren’t different today than in the past, but every older generation complains about the younger ones, and warns that some new technology is going to rot their brains. It was said about radio, TV, movies, it was said about Rock & Roll, Disco, Wrap, Hip Hop…

So I say, chill dudes and dudettes. Help the newbies if you want to, and have something useful to say. If not, then just have another beer and mutter quietly about the damn kids today.

Mike, I've been on this forum for about the same length of time as you and, although I've never said it to you, I've always agreed with your sentiments and your general approach to people and life and this forum completely. This post that you just wrote should replace the banner at the top of the forum and every person who comes here should be forced to read it. Excellent!!!

[AKA-None]

Well if we are talking old I recall being happy when 8" floppy disks came out :-; formatting hard drives meant running a debug command and there were no hard drives just tape.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

You got me Stu. Don’t know what SLMR is/was.

My first modem was a 1200 baud, although I got to use a friend's 300 phone-plug modem prior to me spending the big bucks on the super-fast 1200. I used that one with my Mac SE. But my first computer was a Texas Instruments that used a cassette recorder as the storage drive. I expanded the built in memory of 4 kilobytes to a whopping 16K. I recall when that fancy Commodore 64 came out, and I mockingly proclaimed: “64K! Who would ever need 64K of memory?!?”

Since then I’ve learned not to make too many predictions about the future of technology .

LOL!
I recall thinking the same thing about the Commodore with the 64K!